Flooding all over

EVEN as the Met Office yesterday at 3 pm discontinued its warning for Tropical Storm Karen, the nation was placed on a Red Alert for riverine flooding because of the major rainfall yesterday throughout the nation, leading to a closure of all primary and secondary schools today.

According to the Met Office, as of 2 pm, the centre of storm Karen was moving into the south-eastern Caribbean Sea and was located near 12.7 degrees north and 62.3 degrees west or about 95 km north of Grenada, moving west-north west at 20 km per hour.

The Met Office said that a tropical storm warning was in effect for Grenada and its dependencies and St Vincent and the Grenadines; while a tropical storm watch was in effect for the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico including Vieques and Culebra and the British Virgin Islands.

Even as the tropical storm warning was discontinued, the Met Office had instituted a Riverine Flood Warning Red Alert for Trinidad. The alert was instituted at 3 pm today and will run until 4 pm today.

A riverine flooding is a significant threat for areas near major river courses and tributaries.

River levels, the Met Office said, are near threshold and further rain is expected. It said that properties in areas prone to flooding may become inundated and people have been advised to make preparations.

There were reports of major flooding throughout the country from Diego Martin in the West, to Toco in the East to all of central and southern parts of the island.

At a press conference yesterday, National Security Minister Stuart Young confirmed that the threat of riverine flooding had been upgraded by the Met Office to a red alert and said the government through various agencies would monitor development overnight and into this morning and said government has taken a decision to close all schools today, but leave businesses and government services available.

“We are no longer under a threat of Tropical Storm Karen but right now what we’re facing is a red level warning to riverine flooding as a result of that we are taking a decision that there will be no schools tomorrow. We will not be closing businesses or government offices as we don’t see the need for that.

“We are asking everyone to exercise caution, but we’re not going to be shutting down businesses and the government. We have just taken that decision after consultation with the meteorological services. They advised we take the decision to close schools.

“There has been a rise in our river levels. Due to the continued rainfall we have experienced, what will happen is we will continue monitoring but we suspect flooding and rivers would have broke their banks.

“We believe there is reason to carry us up to a red level warning. Further rainfall is expected. Flood waters throughout TT continue to rise, there has been flash flooding.”

Young also urged the public to remain indoors and venture outside only if absolutely necessary. Responding to various videos of flooding posted to social media by public, he said this behaviour placed persons at risk of contracting disease or being stranded while in water.

For his part Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said the St Joseph, Maraval, San Juan and Diego Martin rivers along with others in the south have reached ‘peak capacity’ and urged the public to remain indoors and avoid congesting the road.

“We will do what we can out there. Our rivers are now at their full capacity, unfortunately there isn’t much we can do. We are enjoying the fact that there is a low tide and are expecting some run-off.”

Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte also noted the higher than average rainfall stating that within 24 hours there was an 80 per cent increase in rainfall.

He said as a result of this, the north-eastern parts of Tobago were heavily affected and reported 60 outages in Tobago up until press time, but sought to assure the public that electricity should have returned by this morning.